Spiffy:

Iffy:

Definitely not for children; most costly XBLA game to date; their names are neither Gabe nor Tycho in real life.

If you're reading this article, then it is likely that you've visited the webcomic Penny Arcade. Gabe and Tycho have been promising the release of their very own videogame for what seems like ages. Today we actually got to play Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One and can verify that it does indeed exist, and it's packed with the same brand of geeky esoteric/non-sequitur humor as the comic. What's surprising is the genre of game the PA fellows came up with: an episodic, turn-based adventure/RPG.

The Voice of Gaming

A serious focus has been placed on avoiding any possible fan disillusionment, to the point that Tycho and Gabe are not voiced to ensure that nobody can complain, "That's not what Tycho sounds like!" Of course, reading their lines in word balloons also mimics the way people usually interpret the pair's thoughts, so that's another point for authenticity.

In addition, you do not play as Gabe or Tycho (or Tycho's niece Claire, who also appears in the game), but instead forge your own PA-style visage using a surprisingly thorough character creator. There are quite a few different styles of heads, bodies and legs with little bits of flair like facial hair, glasses and shoes, any of which can be custom-colored. The plan is to enable your character to carry over their progress to future episodes with their stats intact, so that you can continue your adventure without leaving your avatar behind. It was also hinted that more clothing and body-type choices may be added through further downloadable content.

Fortified With Vitamin F

The game itself is a blend of Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario and The Secret of Monkey Island. You spend a lot of time rambling around, pawing through the environment until something attacks you. Combat is handled in a turn-based fashion with some extra interactivity thrown in by way of pulling the right trigger just before an enemy's attack in order to block. It's a little bit of Final Fantasy gameplay with a pretty coat of cel-shaded paint that blends into an overall style that should be very familiar to fans of the webcomic.

The reference to Monkey Island isn't thrown in willy-nilly, because the PA boys actually contracted that game's lead designer, Ron Gilbert, to help them design the adventure-based side of the gameplay. Though our brief taste of Rain-Slick Precipice didn't provide a great deal of contact with the elements that Gilbert worked on, there was some evidence of his touch in the bits and bobs scattered about the environment just begging to be clicked on... or, rather, have the A button pressed while standing next to.

The writing is every bit as sardonic and explicit as you'd expect from Penny Arcade. It's clear that Penny Arcade Adventures has been meticulously made to conform to Gabe's and Tycho's rigorous standards of offensive hilarity, right down to the inclusion of a certain fruit-abusing device that cannot actually be named here.

Perhaps the most exciting news from the demo was that the first installment of PAA:OtRSPoD:E1 will be available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace next Wednesday. It will cost 1600 Microsoft points ($20), though, which makes it the most expensive downloadable content on the 360 market, but it should provide roughly six to ten hours of gameplay to justify that extra expenditure.